1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus that is used to extract and separate a desirable material from an undesirable material, and more particularly the present invention relates to a self propelled apparatus that will quickly and efficiently extract items, such as worms, and separate the items from the undesirable item, such as soil.
2. Description of the Background Art
Through out the United States, efforts are being taken to improve the efficiency of collecting and separation a desirable material from an undesirable material. The primary cost component of collecting and separating a material from an undesirable material (i.e. collecting and separating worms from the soil) is labor. In the past, the collection and separation of such material has been done manually. Individuals must contact and extract the desired material from the undesirable material. Though efficient, the process has been very time consuming. Accordingly, many efforts have been devoted to reduce the labor cost component of preparing the extraction and separation of the desired material from the undesired material. With the advent of cost and time containment throughout the various industry, renewed efforts are being made to examine all direct labor cost areas with a focus on reducing the amount of labor heretofore involved, and the associated cost.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,256, issued to Kiss discloses a stationary separating apparatus that includes a feed hopper and a screen means. Worms and their habitat (i.e. earth, eggs, peat moss) are dropped through the hopper to fall to the screen means. The screen means consists of a feed section, an intermediate section, and a downstream section. The feed section is at a higher elevation and the downstream is at a lower elevation. As the worms and their habitat travel across the screen means, the earth, eggs, peat moss, and smaller sized worms are filtered out via the screen means to provide for the desired worms to be transported to a holding receptacle. The problem with Kiss's apparatus is that it is not self propelled. A second problem is that an individual still must dig the worms and their habitat first and then lift the collection to drop it into the hopper, accordingly not reducing the labor cost associated with collecting the undesired material containing the desired material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,762 issued to Beal et al. disclose a separating apparatus. This separating apparatus consists of a rotatable hollow, cylindrical drum having a delivery chute disposed at its inlet opening. The drum is mounted for rotation about an axis which is disposed at a slight angle or incline to the true horizontal. The interior surface of the drum is provided with a plurality of extending worm gathering projections. The worms and their habitat are dropped in the inlet opening and travel through the drum. During the traveling process, the worms are collect and maintained via the worm gathering projection while the undesired material exists the drum. This apparatus does not decrease labor since an individual still must collect the habitat with the worms and drop the collection into the inlet. Additionally, after the separation has occurred, an individual must still remove the worms located between the projections and place the worms in a receptacle.
None of these previous efforts, however, provide the benefits intended with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques do not suggest the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed and claimed herein. The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art device through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available material.